Images of Christmas
Sheet Music Book
By Joel Raney

Joel Raney is probably my favorite arranger, and he has lived up to that reputation in this book. I enjoy many of the arrangements from this book. However, when I bought it, I thought based on the samples that it would be made of more classical style arrangements. About half...

of the arrangements are jazz arrangements, and being a pianist for a church with a more traditional worship style, it makes it so that I have to either modify them heavily, or, in some cases, just not use them. Also, it was not as advanced as I anticipated. I would have liked for more difficult arrangements. Most of the arrangements in this book are more of a late intermediate level. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed playing through these pieces and will definitely be using several of them in future Christmas related events and church services. Other than what I have stated, this book is highly recommended. Joel Raney continues to live up to his reputation!

Loved the unique arrangements of familiar carols. It was exactly what I was looking for, and at a level that I can play without an extreme amount of practice.

Challenging, yes, but well worth the effort. Raney's work is so melodic and full of drama. Certainly not the typical, expected interpretation of Christmas favorites.

I've been playing the piano for 13 years and love challenging music. I especially love Christmas music that takes some time to work on and is different than your average arrangement. I thought it would be a good book from the other reviews. However, I found this book to...

be the worst one I've ever played. The arrangements were choppy with too many unnecessary key changes and fillers that drowned out the melody. I would turn away from this book as quickly as possible and find something better.

This is my absolute FAVORITE piano Christmas album. I have been playing for 15 years, and it can be challenging to find Christmas music or hymns that are challenging and require some work. The arrangements in this book are difficult enough to require some work, but not so difficult that...

they are impossible to learn. The music is absolutely wonderful: interesting, and different, yet still true to the original tunes. I would highly recommend this album to fellow pianists who love beautiful Christmas music!